Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

So I was looking online for a place to buy colognes for cheap, and I found Scentiments! OMG the prices were so low compared to other sites and actual stores I've been to. Oh but wait they only sell to the U.S...

I don't want to have to buy actual stores as they cost a ton, and I don't want to be surprised by a huge custom fee as soon as the product finally arrives... Surely there must be SOME Canadians in this forum that know what to do.

Oh and I am a 15 year old teenager so I am looking mainly for designer fragrances. Maybe niche if they are really cheap, lol.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

I don't trust Fragrancenet's stock and freshness though. My preferred online store is BeautyEncounter.com, which has good prices and shipping is "reasonable." Customs duties will be about 20$ on an order more than 50$ US.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Originally Posted by L'aventurier

I don't trust Fragrancenet's stock and freshness though. My preferred online store is BeautyEncounter.com, which has good prices and shipping is "reasonable." Customs duties will be about 20$ on an order more than 50$ US.

I guess you have a point but then again one should be equally skeptical about sephora and other places. Discounted online retailers usually offer cheaper rates because they don't do any retail and make more money on volume. I find Canadian department stores mark up too much.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Your frustration with being unable to find good sources for fragrances that will ship into Canada illustrates the problem with protectionist border policies that Canada has with the U.S. Canada makes it very expensive to ship retail sales from the U.S. to Canada because of the incredibly difficult border import/customs inspection requirments. Canada has long had this expensive border receiving procedure that is kept in place because of the belief that it helps Canadian retailers compete with U.S. businesses who would like to sell to customers by shipping directly into Canada. Canada has always been very paranoid when it comes to allowing U.S. retailers to sell direct to people in Canada so it keeps these boundary restrictions in place on shipments. The net result of these regulations is that Canadian citizens have many fewer choices when it comes to products in all sorts of categories - not only fragrances.

It is much easier to sell to the U.S. from Europe or U.S. to EU than from U.S. to Canada. Why does Canada keep it that way? When I had my own business selling products to shops in the U.S. and Canada we had to open our own distribution company in Canada to foreward shipments on to retailers in Canada. When you consider that 90% of the Canadian population is within 150 miles of the U.S. boundary it would make things so much easier if we could just ship accross the border! But no, the shipments must all clear customs and then be forewarded on - an extra shipping and handling step that is expensive for small shipments. And people complain because UPS charges a huge extra charge for mailing a package from the U.S. to Canada - but it is not UPS that requires the extra import expediting and forewarding. This is the Canadian governments policy of limiting shipments into Canada to its citizens from anywhere in the U.S. The policy has been in place forever and is so much a part of the culture that most people in Canada just think this is normal. But no other countries have this restrictionist policy prohibiting competitive retail sales like Canada has with the U.S.

Opening the borders would benefit Canada business and customers far more than the current protectionist policies benefit them. The real losers are the consumers in Canada. The only people who seem to benefit from Canada's protectionism are the various import expediters that make their living doing the redundant task of taking a package accross the border into Canada and clearing customs then rerouting with an exclusive Canadian shipper to finish the final 5% of the shipping distance to the customer. The shrinking of the globe with computerized communications and web based information certainly has not managed to reduce the barriers of protectionism that Canada keeps in place to protect its citizens from having full access to world markets.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Thanks for your detailed analysis Buzzlepuff. Canada might be one of the few countries that has the luxury of applying some kind of protectionist policies due to it being relatively wealthy and having some kind of influence. The countries who need it the most, unfortunately, don't have that luxury and have been turned into dumping grounds for established markets' products courtesy of WTO.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

You can buy at scentiment, they have a partnership with bongo for international shipping and you can always use bongo to buy anywhere else too. Im gonna try it soon, as long you can avoid ups you shouldn't pay a lot of custom fee.

I have use fragrancenet, ship directly and you are sure that the price at the checkout will be the final price, no more fees.

Usually shopping anywhere when your not using ups the fees (if any) are relatively low so you still have a great bargain. Just have to be sure they are not gonna use ups.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Good post Buzzlepuff!

Here in Canada we pay a high price for a lot of things compare to the price we could get in the US. I often buy more online then retail for all sorts of thing, this way I save a lots of money so far. It could help to have more competition in various domain like for the cell phone industry, no competion = comsumer who get rip off.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Originally Posted by L'aventurier

I don't trust Fragrancenet's stock and freshness though. ....

Me neither

Originally Posted by Buzzlepuff

... The net result of these regulations is that Canadian citizens have many fewer choices when it comes to products in all sorts of categories - not only fragrances.

It is much easier to sell to the U.S. from Europe or U.S. to EU than from U.S. to Canada. Why does Canada keep it that way? When I had my own business selling products to shops in the U.S. and Canada we had to open our own distribution company in Canada to foreward shipments on to retailers in Canada. When you consider that 90% of the Canadian population is within 150 miles of the U.S. boundary it would make things so much easier if we could just ship accross the border! But no, the shipments must all clear customs and then be forewarded on - an extra shipping and handling step that is expensive for small shipments. And people complain because UPS charges a huge extra charge for mailing a package from the U.S. to Canada - but it is not UPS that requires the extra import expediting and forewarding. This is the Canadian governments policy of limiting shipments into Canada to its citizens from anywhere in the U.S. The policy has been in place forever and is so much a part of the culture that most people in Canada just think this is normal. But no other countries have this restrictionist policy prohibiting competitive retail sales like Canada has with the U.S.

Opening the borders would benefit Canada business and customers far more than the current protectionist policies benefit them. The real losers are the consumers in Canada. The only people who seem to benefit from Canada's protectionism are the various import expediters that make their living doing the redundant task of taking a package accross the border into Canada and clearing customs then rerouting with an exclusive Canadian shipper to finish the final 5% of the shipping distance to the customer. The shrinking of the globe with computerized communications and web based information certainly has not managed to reduce the barriers of protectionism that Canada keeps in place to protect its citizens from having full access to world markets.

Good post, but some things are somewhat necessary. Although its unfortunate that doing business in Canada was such a pain in the neck for you ( and certainly understand your frustration Buzzlepuff)

First, yes Canadian consumers have less choice in products in all sorts of categories. But if you live in a major city, you are generally okay. Its not that big of a deal, although I'm not really a "shopper" in any sense. The government and economic policy makers do realize people are going the online route to buy alot of goods.

Also, yes there is a "protectionist policy" here in Canada. But there are reasons for that as well. The protectionist policies go both ways ( in both the US in Canada). Its a smaller country and it does have to go into "protect mode". I guess many policies just don't make sense ( or work out as intended), and I can sense you were frustrated trying to do business, but its bound to happen. Whatever protectionist policies are in place, they need to be more efffective and fair, that is for sure. But at the same time, I can understand government trying to "protect" Canadian business's (although you said it only benefits "import expediters") .

As a whole, I think the products available to consumers here in Canada is pretty darn good. As a fragrance enthusiast, it does suck not having all those retailers that sell products for really good deals ( Strawberry Net...etc). I used to read threads here on TJMaxx, but it just made me so sad ...LOL...just because I was jealous. Don't even get me started on the recent K-Mart Sales thread. Hopefully, things chage a bit.

I'm gonna try to read up some more on this. And just to re-iterate, you do make some good points.

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Originally Posted by L'aventurier

I don't trust Fragrancenet's stock and freshness though. My preferred online store is BeautyEncounter.com, which has good prices and shipping is "reasonable." Customs duties will be about 20$ on an order more than 50$ US.

freshness??? depends on what you buy I guess but I never had any problems so far! as for beautyencounter they insist on using UPS and I'm not sure where you get 20$ for duties cuz only the broker fee at ups is around 40$!!!! BeautyEn.... will always declare AT LEAST 50% of the value of the package and we know anything above 20$ gets taxed PLUS the UPS fees which are taxable too (LOL)

Re: Canadian not very happy :( Anyone know any good Canadian online fragrance stores?

Originally Posted by hawk

as for beautyencounter they insist on using UPS and I'm not sure where you get 20$ for duties cuz only the broker fee at ups is around 40$!!!! BeautyEn.... will always declare AT LEAST 50% of the value of the package and we know anything above 20$ gets taxed PLUS the UPS fees which are taxable too (LOL)

+1. I'm not sure if they ever waive that fee due to the value of an item being low, but I was charged $40 on a $65 purchase. Will avoid UPS by any means necessary in the future!